The piece of news after two games is that Juventus won’t be leading the Serie A ranking for now. The Bianconeri were held onto a draw by a Roma side who, under the eyes of their new owners Dan and Ryan Friendkin, perhaps didn’t believe enough they could wrap the upset of the week, not even when Juventus was forced to play the last 30 minutes with one man less.
In the end, it was a 2-2 tie at the Stadio Olimpico, featuring specular braces from Jordan Veretout and Cristiano Ronaldo – who both converted a penalty and scored one from open play.
For Roma, Marash Kumbulla made his debut in Paulo Fonseca’s three-man defense. Davide Santon replaced Rick Rarsdorp as a right wing-back, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan joined Pedro behind lone striker Edin Dzeko – basically replacing Amadou Diawara for the reasons we all very well know.
Andrea Pirlo’s only change versus his winning debut against Sampdoria was leaving out his surprise starter from last week Gianluca Frabotta. He was replaced by Juve’s “comeback kid” Alvaro Morata, who positioned himself next to Cristiano Ronaldo on the front line, while Dejan Kulusevski moved back to cover Frabotta’s position. Paulo Dybala came back on the bench, but wouldn’t make an appearance tonight.
The first part of the game offered few emotions as both sides had a cautious approach and looked at studying each other rather than going for the kill.
However, the first chance came from the yellow-and-red side: 11 minutes into the game, Henrikh Mkhitaryan came up with an impressive progression, cutting through Leonardo Bonucci and the rest of the Juve defense way too easily, but lost his tempo and his shot was blocked by Wojciech Szczesny.
Juventus opened up and started to show themselves around Roma’s danger area only after 20 minutes. It took a couple of good defensive clearances on the part of Roger Ibanez and Leonardo Spinazzola to keep the Bianconeri at bay.
Both sides continued to stare at each other from afar, so it took an episode to break the deadlock. At the half-hour mark, Roma scored the first with a Jordan Veretout penalty, which the referee allowed for a Adrien Rabiot handball on a shot from the Frenchman himself.
Juve’s equalizer also came from the penalty spot. In the 43rd minute, Cristiano Ronaldo infiltrated into Roma’s area from the left and found Lorenzo Pellegrini’s arm wide open with his cross. Penalty again, which CR7 converted to score his second goal in a row.
But the few fans allowed in the Stadio Olimpico literally exploded one minute later as Roma shocked Juventus with a textbook fast-break: Edin Dzeko found Mkhitaryan with a long-range pass from behind the midfield line, the Armenian progressed on the left dragging Juan Cuadrado’s attention on himself, then served Veretout a fine pass which the French turned into Roma’s second as Weston McKennie vainly chased him.
Roma smelled blood and tried to close the game early in the second half. Their next threat to Szczesny was a curling effort which the Polish custodian easily raised above the bar.
In the 55th minute, Dzeko did everything well as he received a Leonardo Spinazzola pass from the left and got free from Juan Cuadrado in the middle of the box, but his shot from close range hit Juve’s right post. That would be the closest that Roma would come to make it three.
It was time for some changes among the Bianconeri lines: Andrea Pirlo pulled out Alvaro Morata to send in Douglas Costa, and made Arthur Melo make his debut as he sent the Brazilian in in place of McKennie – who appeared much in difficulty tonight.
Things seemed to be getting worse for the Old Lady in the 61st minute as Adrien Rabiot received his marching orders for a clumsy tackle on Jordan Veretout. The Frenchman had already been booked for his handball in the occasion or Roma’s penalty.
But the thing is, Juventus have Ronaldo on their side. Gianluca Mancini and Bruno Peres – who had came in just a couple of minutes earlier – should have kept that in mind as they offered a weak opposition to the Portuguese when he jumped to convert a nice Danilo cross from the right and level the score for the visitors.
After Juve’s equalizer, Paulo Fonseca’s side seemed to slow down and even conceded a few chances to the Bianconeri despite the numerical advantage. There were no serious threats posed to either goalkeeper anymore, however, and the match slowly eased towards a final 2-2 score that will probably make both challengers happy.
Paulo Fonseca’s side will recover some confidence after last week’s mess-up and the frustration at a transfer market session that really tested their nerves. Andrea Pirlo’s version of Juventus, on the other hand, started to show some cracks – especially in the occasion of the Roma second goal – and so, at the end of the day, they could be happy with coming out of the Stadio Olimpico with one point.
But next Sunday against Napoli – who annihilated Genoa today and showed a terrific offensive potential – they won’t be allowed such distractions.
MATCH REPORT
September 27, 2020 – Serie A 2020-2021 Round 2
ROMA-JUVENTUS 2-2
SCORERS: 30′ Veretout (R, pen.), 43′ Cristiano Ronaldo (J, pen.), 45’+1 Veretout (R), 68′ Cristiano Ronaldo (J)
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ROMA (3-4-2-1): Mirante; Mancini, Ibanez, Kumbulla; Santon (67′ Bruno Peres), Veretout, Pellegrini (70′ Diawara), Spinazzola; Mkhitaryan, Pedro; Dzeko (Pau Lopez, Boer, Calafiori, Antonucci, Villar, Cristante, Kluivert, Carles Perez) Coach: Fonseca |
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JUVENTUS (4-3-1-2): Szczesny; Danilo, Bonucci, Chiellini, Cuadrado; Kulusevski (84′ Frabotta), Rabiot, McKennie (58′ Arthur); Ramsey (68′ Bentancur); Morata (58′ Douglas Costa), Cristiano Ronaldo (Buffon, Pinsoglio, De Sciglio, Rugani, Demiral, Portanova, Dybala, Vrioni) Coach: Pirlo |
REFEREE: Mr. Di Bello from Brindisi
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Kumbulla, Pellegrini (R), Rabiot, Frabotta (J); Red Card: Rabiot (J); Extra Time: 1st Half 2′, 2nd Half 3′